Friday, July 15, 2011

Nowhereland

Day 58, Dear Lk. - Kona Beach Campground, South Brook
Dist, 134.5 km. 21.6 km/hr, Saddle Time, 6:13 hrs.
07 14 2011
Overcast and threatening skies for most of the day. Many long hills, great road conditions and little traffic. Winds changed direction often. The only humans I saw were a road crew at around the 90 km point. Really felt alone out here. I had a strange encounter with a "territorially challenged" bird. I don't know what species it was, but it was certainly INSANE !  Insane I tell you !! It was about the size of a large sea gull and had a similar head with a very long narrow pointy beak. It made strange noises, and when it saw me, it began to circle and dive bomb near me. This went on for about 10 minutes. It really freaked me out. I'm usually more worried about dogs, not birds. I wish that I had got some video coverage.
Kona Beach is a nice campground for $18.00. with showers, laundry, little store, water on each site, but no Wi Fi. The town of "Southbrook" is extremely small. I found a convenience / everything store, a restaurant and a post office along with a few homes. Perhaps there was more further from the Hwy. Luckily, there is a greasy spoon on the hwy a few km.s away. There is a ton of outdoor adventure pursuits nearby for those in motorcars. Iceberg watching, boating etc The dominant tree species is Birch which is a really nice change.
There is an Asian couple staying at the site to my right. The man (father/husband, whatever)  was spending time practicing his Hoolha- Hoop skills. (yes, I said Hoolha Hoop) good grief ! Later, I watched him pull bark off birch trees to help his fire.(part of me wanted to wring his skinny neck) I guess he didn't read one of the 10,000 signs posted everywhere asking guests not to kill the Birch trees by stripping the white gold off the trunk. What a selfish GOOF ! He wasn't ignorant judging by his body language, he knew what he was doing. In contrary to that, I met a very cool guy staying across and to the left of me. His name is Kerry, and he, along with his family stay here often.  He gave me some dry firewood and a lawn chair to borrow !  They all came over to talk to me (Because I look so approachable I guess, or pathetic)  We chatted for a while. He gave me some insight into St. John's and the area. Great people. I love the accent here, and the generousity of the people, it's truly a different place.
-"Ma Darl'n"
I had some firewood delivered for the full camp experience. The guy came by in a quad pulling a trailer. He had a thick Newfy accent and was very cool to talk to. The wood was saturated. Now I know why Kerry gave me excellent firewood.
A fox visited my site during the night. I got out of my tent and we just looked at each other. I slowly reached for my camera and managed to get a good pic ! Unfortunately, like an idiot, I deleted it by accident. How the hell did I do that ? AARRGHH ! Crap !
Anywho...
Morning road...
Bird from Hell attacks from above !

SNACKS !
Found it like this..."Anybody missing a licence plate ?"
 Lunch break okilly-dohkilly
Father Kelly's Pit ?... Oh, there it is ...
Part of the job.  Funny though.
A strange animal. Many exist across Can. Never look directly into the eyes and always back away slowly. If they move aggressively towards you, raise your arms and yell Boogha Boogha !! Or if you have a doughnut, toss it within 6 feet of it's direction of travel.
Happier clouds than the previous 5 hours...
Finally, someplace that resembles civilization, and has calories too.

A barren region, but signs pointing people to the party.
Great tarmac and trees...

An outdoor playground that I will bypass because I still have 500 or whatever km to go.
Wow. 

Awesome

Home Base, Kona Beach Campground
A fine site indeed ! Never seen so many Birch Trees before. Nice !

All's quiet on the beach...

Where the bodies were discovered
Sketch of Newfy Wood Guy
Yes, I guess I am recycling these

Bonus lawn chair from friendly Newfys, and great firewood as well ! Thanks kind folks !
Note the creepy Birch trees, a rare sight for me, ni

View Larger Map

No comments:

Post a Comment